Mother's Balloon
by Dewdropzz
Summary: Two years after her mother's disappearance, Reyela lives an isolated life in the countryside with a father who "just isn't there". On the morning of her tenth birthday, when Reyela awakens to find she is alone again, she does not expect her birthday will be a very happy one. Until she discovers a mysterious purple balloon... Friendship/Family/Childhood/Miracles/Growing up/Loss/Life
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all you amazing writers at the fairy tale fandom! First of all, I would just like to say that I'm sorry for posting my story here. I originally wrote this story for Neopets, just because I didn't even think about Fanfiction, and I thought the Neopian Times was the only chance I would ever have of getting my story out to the world. I'm posting it in this section, basically because the Neopets fandom on here is pretty much dead. ;C It is indeed a fairy tale story, and though the characters are Neopets and there is mention of this story being set in the Neopets world, the story and characters are 100% my own, and they can be easily changed to a real-world setting at any time, if need be. **

**This story means the whole wide world to me. :D I am finished writing it, but I will be posting one chapter at a time do to changes I have to make in the formatting. (Story formats are different on the Neopets website then on here. D=) **

**Okay, I'll let you start reading now! If you actually read all this, thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy my story!**

* * *

><p>Once upon a time, in the countryside of Brightvale, there was a miserable little girl named Reyela who lived with her father in a small country cottage. On Reyela's tenth birthday, it was a particularly windy day. The red draik was walking along the bank of the stream behind her home, when she noticed something very strange. A large purple helium balloon was hanging in the air over the middle of the stream, the silver ribbon it was tied with shimmering in the sunlight, dangling only inches above the murky, grey water.<p>

"That balloon must be for me!" Reyela thought confidently, never considering the possibility that it may not be all right for her to take it. After all, it was her tenth birthday, and it was her stream over which the pretty balloon was floating.

Being careful not to dirty her simple blue dress, the red draik hopped across the stepping stones to the centre of the stream. She reached out her arm and took hold of the balloon's ribbon, and when she turned around to try and take her supposed birthday gift home with her, the wind picked up and blew the silver ribbon right out of her hand. She jumped for it...

That was the day Reyela's life changed.

Tired ears awakened to a sound they never thought they would hear. It was an echoey, tinkling, familiar sound, and it startled Reyela eyes blinked open, and slowly scanned the tiny bedroom. Late morning sunlight shone in through the dirty bedroom window, and Reyela was relieved to find she had made it through the night.

It was her tenth birthday today, the most important birthday she had ever had. She was now a decade old. Double digits, one step closer to being a lady and not just an incompetent child. It was a very significant day in the young draik's life. So significant, in fact, that she had stayed up for an undesirably large portion of the previous night, thinking about how the day would play out. Would her father give her a lovely present? Something precious and expensive, and very special for his only child? Would he throw her a giant party, or take her anywhere in Neopia she wanted to go? Perhaps he would take her to Brightvale Castle, where she could dance with the princes and princesses at a royal ball held just for her. The possibilities were endless on this wonderful day of her life. She would go and talk to Father as soon as she was dressed.

As she was opening up her wardrobe, she heard the sound again. The strange and familiar tinkling song she had heard while waking up. The nearly forgotten song of her mother's old wind chimes.

"Those wind chimes cannot be working again! I suppose I was wrong; It's not morning after all, and I must still be dreaming."

Reyela's mother's wind chimes had not made a sound since Reyela was eight years old. Her father said they must have been broken, but he had never had the heart to take them down. His wife had hung the metal chimes on the front porch overhang the day they had moved into their cottage home, and she had always loved the melody they would play every time the wind blew. The chimes had an almost magical sound to them, as lighthearted and carefree as it was haunting. Reyela always hoped she would one day hear the song again, but when she stepped out onto the front porch and saw the dull metal tubes silently dancing in the wind, she knew that just the same as every day, today was not the day for her wish to come true.

"What in Neopia was I thinking?" she scolded herself. "That these mute wind chimes would ring for me on my birthday? What an utterly ridiculous thought! I'm such a stupid girl."

The red draik stomped her feet, until she realized that she was not entirely to blame for this embarrassing little incident. It was as much the wind chimes' fault as it was her own.

"These are stupid wind chimes!" she added, ramming her bare foot into the post by which the wind chimes hung. It was only when she had finished punishing herself and the infernal metal tubes that she decided it was time for her to return to her bedroom and get ready for her day.

"If Mother only knew how ridiculous her wind chimes have become. It seems as though they refuse to make a sound for anyone but her, which is absolutely unfair. I'm her daughter, I should get to hear them too."

For the second time that morning, Reyela began her fight with the rusty hinges on the door of her wardrobe. She firmly wrapped both her hands around the tiny knob, and pulled with all her might until the wardrobe door flung open, almost hitting her in the face.

"Stupid door," Reyela growled. "It makes a fool out of me every morning. Why doesn't anything in this house work?"

It didn't take long for Reyela to find the dress she was looking for in her near-empty closet. She did not own many outfits, and the clothes she did have were not nearly as pretty as her favourite sky-blue dress. Of course, her blue dress was still very plain looking. It had short sleeves which were not puffy like the scarlet draik would have liked them to be. Far worse was the fact that the sleeves had no elastic in their cuffs, and they drooped down the draik's arms, loose and floppy like a boy's play shirt. The dress was also too short, and only went down to Reyela's knees, and not to her ankles like the dresses the princesses wore in her Royal Colouring Book.

Other than its sleeves and its length, the dress was really quite pretty. It had a darker blue sash that felt almost like silk, and could be tied at the back in a decent sized bow. The sash matched very well with the ribbon she used to tie back her long chestnut brown hair, and when she stood by the mirror and twirled round and round, she found herself looking rather lovely indeed.

"Mm, yes. This will be perfect for a birthday-" she corrected herself. "For a tenth birthday celebration. I'm ready to go to the castle now."

She knew she was lying to her reflection in the mirror. Even if she was going to a castle, she would never fit in wearing a knee-length dress with boyish sleeves. But wherever her father was taking her, Reyela wanted to look her best. She would stand up tall and smile, and perhaps if her smile shined bright enough, nobody would notice her clothes.

Now all she had to do was ask her father to take her somewhere. She was expecting to find the green draik in the kitchen, where he would usually have been at this time of morning, drinking his black coffee or cooking an assortment of breakfast foods of varied degrees of edibility. This particular morning, however, her father was not in his typical spot. On the table there was a note propped up against a coffee jar. The note read the following:

Happy birthday Rey!

Gone out for few mins. Back soon.

Love Father

The twisted letters burned into Reyela's mind, and the dispassionate words went right to her heart. Her father was constantly going out, saying he would be back in a few minutes and not returning until the sun was high in the sky. She had determined by now that the man had no concept of time whatsoever, thinking an hour to be only a few minutes, and believing that working ten hour shifts, five days a week from nine until seven, was perfectly convenient for raising a child. Reyela didn't mind his absence most days; She could get along fine by herself. But today was her tenth birthday, a day she didn't want to have to spend alone. It was a day to be celebrated with family and friends, and Reyela didn't have any friends. Her closest neighbour was nearly a mile away, and he was a retired Yooyu Ball player who had no wife or children. There were many woodland petpets on the plain where Reyela lived, but she had never been one to appreciate the company of petpets, and it seemed the little creatures knew it, as they generally kept their distance from the scarlet draik.

Her father was all Reyela had in the world, and if he had taken off on her, what chance did she have of her tenth birthday being a happy one?

"No trip to Brightvale Castle for me this year." Reyela sniffed. Her sadness quickly turned to anger. "He would not have taken me anyway. Brightvale castle is in Brightvale City, and that has to be at least a million miles away from this dreary plain. Father would never be willing to travel that far to ensure his only daughter's happiness. Why, he wasn't even willing to stay home long enough to wish me happy birthday personally!"

Reyela was hot with rage, even before she noticed that her father had referred to her as 'Rey' in the note, a nickname she vehemently hated. Her mother had named her Reyela, and that was the only name she wanted to be called. What did she care if 'Reyela' was too hard a name for her father to print? Was she not even worth enough to him for him to call her by her full name?

The enraged draik grabbed the note off the table and crumbled it into a tiny ball. Then she stomped down the empty hallway, threw open the front door, tossed the ball of paper off the porch, and watched it be carried away by the breeze.

"There," She forced her face into a sickly grin. "Now all my problems are lost to the wind."

Out of the corner of her eye, Reyela caught sight of the wind chimes. The metal tubes were clearly touching, and yet they still remained as silent as ever. A vision of a white draik flashed in her mind. Her mother would have wanted her to have a happy birthday. If only she hadn't had to leave her...

"The wind could never take all my problems away, could it?" Reyela sighed.

It was then that she decided that she needed to go for a walk. She strolled around to the back of the cottage, and before long she had reached her backyard stream. The water was especially cloudy today, filled with dirt and debris from the previous night's rainstorm. Autumn leaves littered the stream for as far as the eye could see, and Reyela thought it was a miracle that the trees were not completely bare. She started to follow the fast-moving water, hoping to find out if the leaves really did go on forever, or if it merely seemed that way. After a moment of walking, Reyela caught a glimpse of something unusual in the distance.

"Now what could that be?"

She started to jog toward the mysterious object, and the wind seemed to help her by pushing her along. As she approached, she realized that the object was a deep purple helium balloon, hanging strangely in the air above the middle of the stream.

"How extraordinarily odd..." the red draik breathed as she moved in closer. "The wind must have blown it over here."

Suddenly, an idea formed in Reyela's mind. "If Father bought this balloon for me, and left it outside on the front porch, surely the wind could have carried it this far. This is still my stream, and it is my birthday. That balloon must be for me!"

At this part of the stream there were stepping stones, that led from one side of the narrow body of water to the other. With one hand holding up the skirt of her dress, and the other hand stretched out at her side to help her balance, Reyela hopped across the stones until she was in arm's reach of the pretty balloon's silver ribbon. She held onto the ribbon, and tried to tug it in the direction of her house, but to Reyela's surprise, and annoyance, the balloon refused to budge.

"How ridiculous! The confounded thing is stuck in the air!"

She pulled harder, this time with both hands, and when she thought that she finally had the stubborn balloon bested, the wind picked up, blowing the ribbon out of her grasp, and sending the balloon floating higher into the air. Reyela stood on her toes. She jumped in the air and flapped her little wings, and she caught the silver ribbon inches before it was out of her reach. Reyela grinned, but her celebration was cut horrendously short. In an instant her happiness was turned to terror, as she realized her feet were not returning to the ground.

"Wha- What in Neopia?"

The balloon continued to rise higher and higher into the air, with Reyela holding onto it, screaming for dear life.

"Sweet Fyora! Put me down! This can't be happening — It's not even possible! A child blowing away on a balloon? I've never heard anything so-"

Reyela's stomach did a somersault inside her when the wind suddenly changed direction, and she started moving sideways towards her cottage at a truly frightening speed.

"Father!" Reyela shrieked at the top of her voice. "You'd better come home and rescue me! I can't get down!"

As the balloon carried her over her cottage home, Reyela heard the same tinkling sound she had heard earlier that morning, and this time she was certain that it was her mother's wind chimes. The sound was as clear and as beautiful as she remembered it to be. As haunting and enchanting as a siren's song, and as bittersweet as yesterday's dream. But the scarlet draik had no time to stay and listen, nor wonder why the chimes were ringing after two full years of silence. Before she knew it, the winds had changed again, and the balloon was taking her farther from the ground than she had ever been before.

It was simply no use. No matter how she screamed, no one came to her rescue, and the persistent balloon apparently was refusing to put her down. Oh why, oh why had she tried to take it home with her in the first place? It was now apparent to Reyela that she was going home with the balloon.


	2. Chapter 2

Reyela hoped she didn't make the wrong decision by calling out to the kougra. She had acted so impetuously. What would she say when the kougra asked where she had come from? That she had been brought to his farm by a magical purple balloon that had rudely floated away on her the second she had her back turned? That was the full truth, without a single exaggeration, but if she told him that, he was sure to think she was lying, or even insane.p

The kougra's eyes were locked on hers. Reyela had half a mind to run. But before she could make a decision, the kougra was marching up the hill on his way to meet her. When at last they stood face to face, Reyela wished she had never gotten his attention.

"I'm looking for Brightvale City." she blurted, knowing it was too late to turn back now. "Can you point me in the right direction, please?"

The biscuit kougra stared at her as if she were an alien from Kreludor. "Where did you come from?" he hesitantly asked the question she was dreading to hear.

"I'm... lost," she said slowly, her mind racing to come up with a believable lie. "I was travelling with my father, and I wandered off the path. We were headed to Brightvale City..."

It suddenly occurred to her that she may not even still be in Brightvale. She and the balloon had started their journey in the morning, and now it was late afternoon. She held her breath waiting for the kougra's reply, hoping she hadn't ruined her cover already.

"You're darn right you're lost, missy." The kougra scratched the tuft of hair between his ears. "Brightvale City's about a two day's walk from here, and that's for people with full-grown legs."

Reyela shot him a look of disgust. "Are you implying I have stubby legs?"

"Uh, no." the kougra smirked. "What I meant was it's a two day's walk for adults. It would probably take you longer, only on the account of you being a kid and all. You are a kid, aren't you?"

"Oh." She calmed down considerably. "Well, yes, I am a child, but not for much longer. I'm ten years old, today in fact. Practically a lady."

"Well I'm eleven, going on twelve, and I know I couldn't make that walk by myself, not in a million years."

Reyela contemplated what he said for a moment. "That's ridiculous." she decided. "Of course you wouldn't be able to do it in a million years! By then you would be a million and eleven, and you would be far too old to walk! Why, you would be dead!"

"As would you be if you tried to walk that far." He shrugged. "Unless you're planning on flying there."

"No, I am not." She glared at her wings, thinking again how useless they were.

"Didn't think so," said the kougra. "But don't worry, missy. I bet my parents can help you get to Brightvale City, if you really need to go there."

Reyela's face lit up. "Oh, I do! I really do! Do you think your parents could really get me there?"

"I reckon so, but you'll have to ask them and see. Come on, missy, I'll take you to meet them."

"Please," Reyela spat, as the kougra was starting to walk away. "Do not call me missy. You haven't known me five minutes, and already you've come up with a nickname for me? That's hardly any way to talk to a girl you've just met."

The boy was not at all frazzled by her comment. "Sorry miss, but you never did me the honour of telling me your name."

"Oh." The girl shrunk back, if only a little. "My name is Reyela. Do not call me Rey, I hate it. If Reyela is too hard for you to say, then please don't call me anything at all."

The biscuit kougra chuckled. "I can say your name just fine, and I wouldn't wanna call you Rey even if you wanted me to. Reyela is a pretty name, if I ever heard one."

The scarlet draik turned an even deeper shade of scarlet, but for the first time in her life it was not because she was outraged. She had always thought she had a very pretty name, but she had never heard it from anyone else before.

"Thank you. It is pretty, isn't it?" she smiled. "My mother gave that name to me."

The kougra smiled back. "My name's Medis Worthington. This is the Worthington family farm."

"Medis Worthington?" Reyela echoed. "What a singularly strange name!"

Medis shrugged his shoulders again. "Yeah, I know."

"It sounds like the name of prince or an earl!"

Medis laughed. "You're right! Medis was an earl, actually. The fourth earl of Brightvale, and a hero of some sort. My parents thought it would be kinda neat if they had a son named after a famous fella like that."

"That's very interesting." she said, realizing Medis had already started to walk. She ran to catch up with him, and the two children walked side by side to the Worthington residence.

"Have you ever been to Brightvale City, Medis?" Reyela asked as they walked.

"No," Medis shook his head. "And I don't believe they'd let me in either. With the fancy clothes and stuff they have in that part of Neopia... Well, let's just say I wouldn't fit in."

"Have you ever been to any city? Maybe one much closer to your home?" the draik asked.

"Brightvale City is the closest city to my home."

Reyela gasped. "But you said it was a two day's walk from your house! Medis, exactly how far out in the country is your home?"

"Pretty far, Miss Reyela." the kougra chuckled again. "Pretty far."

The Worthington family's house turned out to be little more than a shack. When Medis led her up to the tiny beige building she had previously believed to be a shed, Reyela didn't know what to expect. Was the building bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside? Perhaps what Medis was calling the front door was only a door you had to go through to get to the main building, which was hidden somewhere behind the trees? How could a mother, father, and son all live in a house that looked like it was only meant to store farming equipment?

"Here we are." Medis held the door open for her to go inside.

When Reyela didn't move from the step, the kougra assumed she was being shy.

"I'll go first then." he said, motioning for her to follow him down the dark and narrow hallway.

They had to walk single file to reach the closed kitchen door.

"You hide here behind the door, okay? Then when you hear me tell my parents that I've brought someone to see them, you come out of hiding. They'll be so surprised when they see you're not a petpet!"

"Of course I'm not a petpet!" Reyela scowled. "And why do you want me to hide behind this filthy door?"

"Because it will be fun!" Medis could see that the draik was not convinced. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"I'll do it," she reluctantly agreed. "If it will make them want to help me more." p When the biscuit kougra opened the door, Reyela was backed into the wall, with the steel doorknob pressing into her stomach in the most uncomfortable of ways.

"This had better not take long." she grumbled, the battered door muffling her voice.

"Ma, Pa, I made a new friend today. Is it okay if I give her something to eat?"

Reyela went to step out from behind the door, but Medis pushed her back.

"What on Neopia is he doing?" she wondered, as she listened from behind the door.

"All right Medis, what is it?" she heard a female voice say. "Is it a dogelfox like the last time? Or is it something bigger, with a bigger appetite?"

"It ain't a dogelfox, Ma." said Medis. "It's something bigger, and she probably has a pretty big appetite after all the walking she did today."

"So it's something big, that walks everywhere it goes. That means it don't have wings or fins." a male voice, a bit older sounding than Medis, tried to read between the lines.

"You're right it hasn't got fins, Caleb, but it has got wings."

Reyela couldn't see what was happening in the kitchen, but she imagined Medis' grin was growing wider and wider. When she heard anther female voice, this time the voice of a young child, she was curious as to how many members the Worthington family had.

"I hope you didn't bring home a tigermouse. The last tigermouse you brought home bited me on the finger."

"That was because you were pulling its tail, sweetheart." said a man's voice, presumably belonging to Medis' father. "A tigermouse is a small petpet, and Medis said this one's a big one, with wings."

"Do ya'll give up?" asked Medis, unable to contain his excitement any longer.

"We give up, son." spoke the mother again. "You might as well show us what you're hiding behind that door."

"You can come out now, Reyela!"

The kougra moved the door away, and allowed the draik to step into the kitchen.

"Sweet Fyora!" Medis' father, the brown kougra whom Reyela recognized from the barn, fell back in his chair. "You didn't tell us your new friend was a neopet!"

"And a young girl, at that!" exclaimed his mother, a blue yurble with shoulder length blonde hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Draik!" squealed a small biscuit usul, hopping up and down in her seat.

And another blue yurble, this one a teenaged boy simply laughed and shook his head.

"Ma, Pa, Caleb, Bettina, this is Reyela."

Medis called the red draik forward so that she was standing in the middle of the kitchen, and from there Reyela could fully appreciate how excessively small the square room truly was. Most of the space was taken up by a rectangular table, which stretched from one end of the room to the other, leaving little space to walk between the chairs and the stove and sink. In the corner by the window was a miniature icebox, far too tiny to contain enough food for the Worthington family, even if it had only been Medis, his father and mother, which she could now clearly see that it was not. The few pieces of furniture in the postage-stamp-sized room were not new or expensive by any means, but they were remarkably clean for the condition they were in. There was not a speck of dust on the table or the icebox, and the sink and the handles on the stove practically sparkled with polishing, the kind of shine you would expect to see on an appliance that had just been bought.

"Why do they even bother cleaning their furniture to look like that?' Reyela wondered silently. "I'm quite sure they are not going to fool themselves into believing it's all new."

Little Bettina Worthington startled her out of her daydream when she asked her the question she had hoped she wouldn't have to answer more than once.

"Where did you come from, Reyela?"

"I..." she hesitated. "I certainly didn't fly here."

"That's right, Medis said you walked here." recalled Caleb. "But where did you walk here from? Our farm is a little out of the way to come here on a pleasure stroll, ain't it?"

"Why, yes." stammered Reyela. "Yes it is. I was actually on my way to Brightvale City, when I... took a wrong turn."

"That must have been quite the turn you took." observed Mr. Worthington. "Were you all by yourself out there, or-"

"I was with my father." she spat out her sentence before she forgot what she was going to say. "My father stopped to speak to someone, and I... I was foolish, really, and I started to wander. I didn't think I had gone very far, and I tried to return to my father, but I suppose I just ended up going in circles, and I walked and I walked and," she sighed. "Here I am."

"You poor dear," said a sympathetic Mrs. Worthington. "Your father must be missing you. He's probably out looking for you, but he's not likely to find you out here. Were you planning on staying at a friend's house in the city, or were you going to stay in a hotel? If you know the address of wherever your father might be, you could neomail him from here and ask him to come and get you."

Mrs. Worthington's idea was a good one indeed, but if she neomailed her father he would surely come and get her, and any hope she had of getting to Brightvale City would be forfeited if he came to pick her up. Not to mention she would have to explain to him how she had got there, and Reyela was certain that her father was no more apt to believe the balloon story than Medis and his family were. Also, if the Worthingtons saw the address she sent the neomail to, they would instantly know that her father was not in Brightvale City, or anywhere near it. She would have to come up with a reason for why she was unable to contact him by neomail...

"To be honest with you," she began slowly. "I don't even know where we were going. Father was taking me for a surprise, you see. It's my tenth birthday today, and he was taking me as a sort of treat..."

Bettina suddenly let out an ear piercing squeal. "It's your birthday today? It's my birthday the day after tomorrow! Happy birthday to both of us!"

"Bettina, it's not your birthday yet." Mr. Worthington reminded his daughter. "Today is Reyela's day, and we're gonna help her get back to her daddy. A fella I do business with is fixing to go the city the day after tomorrow."

"My birthday!" Bettina shouted, and was shushed by her brown kougra father.

"I'll send him a neomail and tell him your story, and I'm sure old Ben'll be willing to take you along with him, if that'd be all right with you."

"It would be more than all right with me!" Reyela exclaimed. "Oh, but where shall I stay until the day after tomorrow?"

"You're welcome to stay with us," offered Mrs. Worthington. "You can sleep in Bettina's room on the spare cot."

"Yes!" shrilled Bettina. "You can stay in my room, Reyela!" She gasped. "I better tell Liza we're gonna get a guest!"

With that, the biscuit usul ran out of the room. The remaining Worthingtons laughed.

"Liza is her doll." Medis informed her.

Reyela giggled. "How endearing."

"We're having vegetable soup for supper tonight, Reyela. Ma put carrots, and celery, and potatoes and all kinds of stuff in it. Do you think you'll like that?"

"I'm sure I will, Medis." the red draik nodded politely. "Thank you all very much."

Reyela couldn't understand it. Medis had said his parents would help her get to Brightvale City, and she was not expecting any more from them than that. Why would they, and their children be willing to let her stay with them in their house that was barely big enough for the five of them? They were even going to share their food with her, even though Reyela was positive that it would mean that they would not have enough for themselves. Why did it please these people so to know that they were helping a total stranger? They must have felt bad for her because of the story she had told them. Reyela laughed inwardly, imagining the sympathy they would have given her if she had told them the real story of how she had gotten there. They probably would have showered her with consolation gifts! Though what they would have given her, she had no idea.

"I'd better go give the snorkels their evening slop. Do you wanna come with me, Reyela?"

Actually, she did have an idea. But she didn't like it one bit.

"Thank you for the offer, Medis, but I think I will stay here, and look around the rest of your house until supper is ready."

"Supper won't be ready for at least another hour, honey." Mrs. Worthington notified her. "You'll have plenty of time to go with Medis and see the rest of the house before then. Our house isn't really that big, you might have noticed."

"Yes ma'am." sighed Reyela. "I've noticed."

"So are you gonna come?"

Her excuse had been dismantled, and Medis looked so anxious to show her his snorkels. She didn't want to go with him any more than she wanted to be trapped on his farm for the next two days. But she knew she was in Medis' debt. After all, if it hadn't been for he and his parents, her dream would not be coming true the day after tomorrow. She supposed that, ultimately, she didn't have a choice whether she went with him or not.

"I'll go with you, Medis." She started towards the door. If she was going to do it, she was going to do it quickly, and get the smelly experience over with. "Let us not keep the dear snorkels waiting."


	3. Chapter 3

The walk to the barn from the Worthington's house was quite a long one, down a winding dirt path, over hills and past the corn field. For as long as the journey was, it could never be long enough for the scarlet draik who knew that her worst nightmare was waiting for her at the end of the road.

"Tell me Medis, are your snorkels the dirty kind that like to wallow in the mud? Or the nice, or rather, clean kind that can be kept inside a home like a tasu or a dogelfox?"

The kougra tried not to smile at the concerned look on the red draik's face. "As a matter of fact, the indoor snorkels are the same kind of petpet as the outdoor snorkels. Some people like to keep them inside as house pets, but the truth of it is that most snorkels would rather be kept outside, in a pen during the daytime, and in a barn to sleep at night."

"Do all outdoor snorkels like to roll in mud, then?"

"All snorkels love the mud, miss Reyela, even the indoor ones." He made quotation marks with his fingers when he said the word 'indoor'. "Why are you so curious about whether they roll in mud, anyway? I'm not turning you into a snorkel, I'm just taking you to see them."

Before Reyela could answer, they had arrived at the large burgundy building.

"Short walk." she murmured.

"Maybe for you. You know, I always thought city kids would do a lot less walking than country kids. You sure are proving me wrong."

"I don't live in the city, just near it." she lied. "Now, where are the snorkels? Are they around here?"

"Their pen's at the side." He pointed to a small fenced-in enclosure. "I need to get their slop outta the storeroom. You can go around and see them, if you'd like."

The red draik shook her head, and followed the kougra into the barn. The storeroom was completely dark when they stepped inside, but a delightful sweet smell greeted Reyela's nose.

"It smells wonderful in here!" she said in utter disbelief. "It cannot be snorkel slop I smell!"

"Nope. It isn't snorkel slop." Medis turned on the light, illuminating rows and rows of wooden crates, filled with apples, carrots, husks of corn and every other fruit and vegetable one would expect to see at an autumn harvest.

Reyela goggled. "Where did all these come from?"

"We grew them." the kougra beamed. "We do it every year. Then Pa takes them to the market to be sold."

"They look delicious." Reyela breathed, examining a bushel of glistening green apples.

"Do you like green apples?" Medis asked when he noticed the fascinated expression she wore.

"I don't know." Reyela admit. "I've never tasted a green one before. They don't sell them at the store near my house."

"Sure they do." he said plainly.

"No they don't! I'm quite sure I would know what there is around my house better than you would!"

He shrugged, and Reyela was beginning to notice that he did that a lot. "All I know is that the Worthington farm sells all colours of apples to almost every grocery store in Brightvale City, and surrounding areas. You must have seen them before. Maybe you thought they were limes or something."

"I'm not stupid!" Reyela flared. "I know the difference between a green apple and a lime, and if you think for one minute that I don't..."

Reyela let her sentence trail off. She had said the wrong thing again. Of course the general store near her house didn't sell the Worthington's green apples. He said they sold them in Brightvale City, but she didn't live anywhere near Brightvale City. But she had told Medis that she did...

"Here you go." Medis picked up an apple from the pile and handed it to her.

"Why are you giving me this? I thought your father was taking them to market."

"One apple won't make a difference. Besides, I'm sure Pa would rather they go to someone who will appreciate them than to someone who gets to eat them all the time." He winked. "The slop's in this bin. Come on, let's go!"

Snorkel slop turned out to be exactly what it sounded like, and exactly what Reyela feared. A slimy mixture of something that resembled left-over food, or could have resembled left-over food if it hadn't been ground into almost a liquid, brown in colour and thick and lumpy in texture. The mixture was appalling, and even more appalling was the noise the kougra made to call the snorkels to eat.

"What in Neopia are you doing?" Reyela grimaced as if she were in pain. "I have never heard a sound so horrible! Never in my entire life!"

"Guess you've never been to a farm then." he answered curtly, between his screeching. "This is how you call snorkels."

"That's not how I would call them!" Reyela shouted over the noise.

This caught Medis' attention. "Okay, well, how would you do it then?"

"Well," she considered for a moment. "I'm not sure I particularly know."

"Aw, come on, anything has got to sound better than what I was just doing. Just try."

Reyela took a deep breath. "Here, snorkel, snorkel, snorkel!" she called softly. Then she repeated it three more times, and on the third try a whole litter of baby snorkels came running out of the barn, followed by a giant snorkel that could have only been the babies' mother.

"Would you look at that." Medis watched in awe as nine baby snorkels and their mother lined up to be fed. "That call would never have worked for me. They must like you, Reyela."

Reyela did not agree. "They don't like me. No petpet likes me. The ones at my house always avoid me. My father says perhaps it is just the way it's meant to be."

"That can't be true."

The scarlet draik gave no reply. She cupped her face with her hands, and leaned on the wooden fence, watching the little snorkels fight for a place in front of the slop trough, and noticing, in spite of what she had previously thought, that they were actually quite adorable. They watched in silence for a moment, until an idea came to Medis Worthington.

"I know a petpet that will like you, Reyela."

"No you don't."

"What do you mean I don't?"

"You can't!" Reyela hissed. "No petpet wants anything to do with me. It's my aura. They don't like me, none of them do."

"Do you know every petpet in Neopia?" the kougra challenged.

"No, but the ones I have known-"

"Jimmy is different from any other petpet you've ever seen." Medis cut her off. "He'll like you, and I bet you'll like him too."

He started to walk away, and after a moment, Reyela chased after him. She didn't know what had come over her, why she was running to meet a petpet who was only going to ignore her, if it didn't scratch or bite her. She hoped that whatever this Jimmy was, he wasn't a very large petpet. Large petpets had large claws, and strong jaws that could bite down hard on their prey with their sharp teeth. Large petpets also had long legs, and huge feet that could send someone into oblivion with one powerful kick...

"Medis?"

"Uh-huh?"

"What kind of petpet is your Jimmy?"

The kougra had the most mischievous look on his face. "I'm not gonna tell you."

"What do you mean you're not going to tell me?Why ever would you want to keep the type of petpet you have a secret? Unless it was something bad..."

"It's just more fun this way." he chuckled. "It's a surprise. Close your eyes."

"I didn't know it was possible for anyone to like surprises as much as you do." she mumbled, and begrudgingly covered her eyes.

Reyela heard the sound of a door opening, and Medis told her she could open her eyes. She moved her hands away from her face to see a mop of hair with ears standing placidly in his stall.

"Does he have eyes?" was the first thing the draik thought to say when she came face to face with the shag-covered creature.

Medis was grinning from ear to ear. "He does somewhere!" he laughed. "They're just underneath all this hair. We've all tried to cut it, but it grows back faster than anything you've ever seen. I don't know how he gets around without bumping into things. He's always managed though."

Reyela watched as the kougra scratched the creature's fluffy ear. Jimmy tipped his head to one side, and then the other, and Reyela imagined his eyes were closing underneath his thick mop of reddish hair.

"Jimmy is a vacana, from Tyrrania." Medis told her. "He's super soft. Feel his ear."

She felt his ear, and it was soft. Softer than the ribbon in her hair that was almost silk, softer than anything she had ever felt before. And Jimmy didn't move when she pet him. He didn't even flinch.

Reyela was delighted. "He does like me, Medis, he does! You were right! Oh, what a nice boy he is. He's not shying away, or anything!"

"See?" said Medis. "Petpets are easy to make friends with. As long as you give them a chance, they'll give you one."

They stayed with Jimmy for a long time, brushing his hair with petpet combs, and scratching his velvet ears. When darkness began to fall over the farm, Medis suggested they go back to his house. They were greeted at the door by a biscuit usul, and her yellow usul china doll.

"You talk first, Liza." Bettina whispered in the doll's ear. She cleared her throat, and began to speak in a higher voice. "Did you have a nice time slopping the snorkels, Miss Reyela? Are you ready to do the tour of our house now?"

"What ever are you doing, Bettina?" Reyela gave the young child a curious glance. "Do you often use more than one voice when you speak, or do you only do it on special occasions?"

Medis elbowed her in the side. "It's her doll talking, not her." he said through clenched teeth.

"Oh! Quite an imagination this one has! Good evening, Liza is it? I do hope you and your mother were not waiting too long for Medis and I to return."

"Ma is in the kitchen cooking." said the high little voice in reply. "Me and my sister have been here waiting for a long time, isn't that right, sister Bettina?" Bettina cleared her throat again, and continued to speak in her own voice. "Mm-hm, it's been an awful long time."

"The doll is her sister?" the draik whispered to the kougra, now more confused than ever.

"Bettina likes to pretend Liza is her baby sister, since she hasn't got a baby sister in real life." Medis explained.

"Yes I do have a baby sister, Medis!" Bettina cried. "Liza is my baby sister, in real life and not pretend! Ma and Hannah know that, and even Colton knows, but you and Caleb think I'm pretending!"

"No, no Betty, you know we're just kidding you. Come on, let's give Miss Reyela the grand tour."


	4. Chapter 4

"Who are Hannah and Colton, Medis?" wondered Reyela, as she followed the biscuit neopets up the stairs.

"They're our other sister and brother." said Medis. "Don't hold on too tight to that railing, it's coming loose."

The draik snapped her hand back as if she had just touched something poisonous. "I wouldn't like the railing to come off in my hand." she simpered. "Medis, you have five children in your family? And they all live here, in this house?"

"Yup. Me and Caleb share this room on the left,"

"And me and Liza and Hannah share the one on this side." finished Bettina.

"And where does Colton sleep?" inquired Reyela.

"Colton sleeps in the cradle in Ma and Pa's room. Once he's too big for that he'll sleep in me and my brother's room."

Reyela stepped into Medis and Caleb's room, and immediately felt claustrophobic, sandwiched between the two beds and the dresser that was piled with baskets containing the boys' other belongings.

"Where would you put a bed for Colton in this room?" asked the draik. "There is barely enough room for you two in here. You would have to move the dresser, but then there would be nowhere to put your clothes, and you would have to climb on Colton's bed to get to your own beds, which could be extremely frustrating if one of you had to get up in the middle of the night..."

"Pa said Caleb and Medis would have to get bunky beds!" Bettina said excitedly. "I wish me and Hannah could have them too. I would wanna sleep on the top!"

"You're lucky you're no bigger than a pea, Bettina." Medis teased. "I'm sure not looking forward to Colton growing out of his cradle. These ceilings aren't high enough for bunk beds. Whoever sleeps on the top will only have a few inches of breathing space between the mattress and the stucco. But," He shrugged, good-naturedly. "What can we do, eh? It's more important that our baby brother has somewhere to lay his head than that I have lots of room to myself, right?"

"Right." Reyela agreed, wondering if she would have the same outlook on the situation if she were in Medis' shoes.

"Medis, can we show our houseguest me and Hannah and Liza's room now?" The little usul pulled on the kougra's hand, trying to lead him out of the room.

"Sure, honey. You lead the way for Miss Reyela."

The girls' bedroom was the same as the boys' room, except that the dresser was replaced by a wardrobe, and beside the bed on the right side of the room was a wooden crate like the ones storing vegetables in the barn.

"That's Liza's bed." said Bettina, before Reyela could ask, pointing out the wool blanket her mother had knit just for the doll.

Mr. and Mrs. Worthington's room was the biggest of the three upstairs rooms, and it seemed to double as a storage room for the large family with the tiny house. Children's toys were strewn about the floor, and toppling towers of cardboard boxes leaned against the wall. In the centre of the room beside Colton's cradle, was a rickety old chair that looked like it had once belonged to a kitchen set, and sitting on the chair was a tray of silverware that had certainly seen better days.

"Your family has nowhere else to put these things." Reyela observed out loud.

"Well, we could put them in the living room," said Medis. "But there's not a whole lot of room in there either, what with the two couches and the chair. We've all got to have our own place to sit, of course."

"Medis, Bettina, it's time for supper!" Mrs. Worthington called from the bottom of the staircase.

"Coming Ma!" Medis shouted down.

"Why didn't she call my name?" asked Reyela.

"Medis, can you please bring the extra chair down from upstairs? We'll need seven chairs around the table for the next couple nights."

Reyela smiled a most satisfied smile. "That's better."

She supposed she would never know why she was so happy to be dining with a family of farmers during the last few hours of her tenth birthday. It made no sense whatsoever. These people were not the kind of people she wanted to be with on her special day, and the food they were serving her was not the kind of food she would have chosen on any occasion, special or otherwise. So why did she feel so blissful when Caleb pulled her chair in closer to the table where his family sat? Why did she feel special when shy Hannah tried to speak to her, and why did she burst out laughing when baby Colton missed his mouth, and accidentally spilled his soup in her hair? Why in the name of Hagan, king of Brightvale was she talking to Bettina's china doll? The Worthingtons were obviously messing with her mind. Or had her mind been messed up from the beginning, and now it was converting to the way it was always meant to be? Could such a miracle happen in a shack on a farm, far out in the Brightvale countryside?

"Mr. Worthington?" Reyela asked that night, as she and Medis and Medis' father sat talking on the back porch before bed. "Why did you purchase such a small house for you and your wife and five children? You can't possibly be comfortable living here. There's barely enough room for you to walk without bumping into one another."

"Well, Miss Reyela," the brown kougra said with a yawn. "I didn't really choose for us to live in this house. I inherited it from my Pa when he died. He built this house for him and my Ma, I guess about fifty years ago. When I was born, I hear it got a little more cramped, but we always got along just fine. I never dreamed I'd be living here with five kids and a wife, but I gotta say it's much better than living in a two-room hut with a leaky roof."

The draik's brown eyes grew three times their usual size. "You don't mean that you actually..."

Even if she had never seen the kougra before, she would have instantly recognized him as Medis' father by the way he shrugged his shoulders when he said, "Turns out I wasn't born with the same house building skills my Pa had. I couldn't afford to buy an already made home either though. Nope, I was too busy feeding my two little boys."

"Reyela was puzzled. Two boys?" she questioned.

"Only me and Caleb were born at the time." Medis clarified. "Caleb is fifteen now, so he was five, and I was one when we moved in here."

"Uh-huh," Mr. Worthington continued. "And it's a good thing we got this house when we did. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself knowing my kids had to grow up in the shack of the place I built for them. Whenever I start to think of how good it would be to live in a big house, with separate bedrooms for all my kids, and a proper basement to store all the stuff we don't use every day, I just try to remember the old hut we used to live in, and I realize how lucky we are to have this beautiful home right here."

"That sounds ridiculous," the red draik mused. "Yes, it indeed sounds perfectly ridiculous to say you are lucky to have a house like this. But it isn't ridiculous, is it?"

All at once, a smile spread across Reyela's face, as if something she did not understand before was becoming perfectly clear to her now. "This house must be a castle to you and your wife, and your children. Why, you must be grateful for it! Every day you must be grateful for it, for if it weren't for it you would be living in your old two-room hut! That is, if the hut would still be standing by this time. You did say it had a leaky roof, didn't you? If that is what you said, the roof would probably have fallen in by now, and you would be completely without a home! Oh, and that would be terrible for you and your family! Why, you certainly couldn't live like that!"

The brown kougra and his son wanted desperately to laugh at the draik's sudden burst of enthusiasm, but out of fear of sounding impolite the two kougras kept their mouths shut, and simply nodded in agreement. Medis nodded especially hard in an attempt to control his delight. He had not seen this side of Reyela before, and now that he had, he never wanted her to stop showing it.

"Well," Mr. Worthington got up from his chair. "I reckon it's time we all go to bed. You can wear a pair of Hannah's pajamas if you'd like, Reyela. They'll probably be a bit small on you, but they'll be more comfortable to sleep in than a dress, I'm sure."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Worthington." Reyela curtsied. "I would be truly grateful. Oh yes, I'd be grateful!"

Just then, an evening breeze blew over the farm, and gently tousled the red draik's chestnut hair. Then a soft tinkling song was played, and it startled Reyela in a way she had never been startled before.

"What's wrong, Reyela?" Medis inquired when he noticed the unusual look on her face. "That sound is the wind chimes in the front yard. I guess maybe you don't have them where you come from."

"We do." she told the kougra. "I have a pair at my house. I was just thinking, those sound very much like my mother's. Not quite the same, though. My mother's sound more echoey, where yours have a fuller sound to them."

"Was your mother travelling to Brightvale City with you and your daddy?" Medis asked earnestly.

"My mother is no longer with us." Reyela confessed. "She went away, a little over two years ago."

"I couldn't imagine..." Medis started to say, but changed it to a simple, "I'm sorry."

Reyela nodded, and started making her way towards the door. Mr. Worthington was already inside, so Medis doused the lantern and went in as well.

"Are you gonna sleep in our room tonight, Reyela?" a quiet voice called seemingly from out of nowhere.

"Who said that?"

"I did." A fair-haired blue kougra laid on the floor at the top of the stairs, peeking down at the draik through the bars of the railing.

"Oh, hello Hannah. I'm pleased to see you're not a ghost!" Reyela giggled. "Your mother said I could sleep with you and Bettina tonight. I do hope that's all right?"

The timid girl seemed to have no objections. She dangled a pair of pale yellow cotton pants with tiny pink polka dots, and a matching short-sleeved shirt through the railing for Reyela to take.

"Those are Hannah's summer pajamas." A nightgown-clad biscuit usul appeared behind the kougra. "Hannah thinks you might be cold in them, so she found you two extra blankets. You can pick which one you want, or you can have both."

Hannah shot her little sister an annoyed look. "I was going to tell her that."

"I bet you weren't!" Bettina protested. "You didn't look like you were going to say nothing!"

"Well maybe you weren't looking at the right time."

"I was to!"

"What're you girls yelling about now?" Caleb stepped out of his room to see what the racket was about.

"Hannah is mad at me because I told Reyela something she said she was gonna tell her, but I didn't know that she was gonna say that, so she shouldn't be mad!" Bettina screamed.

"But she asked Reyela all the questions I said I wanted to ask her when we were eatin' supper!"

"Only because you said you were afraid to talk to Reyela, and I wasn't!"

The blue kougra turned bright red. "I didn't say that! Caleb, make her stop sayig I said things I didn't say!"

"That will be enough, girls." Mrs. Worthington came out of her bedroom, carrying Colton the brown baby yurble in her arms. "It's way past both of your bedtimes, Caleb's and Medis' too. You can all talk to your new friend tomorrow, but right now it's time for bed."

"Yes!" Bettina clasped her hands together.

"Oh no, Betty, that does not mean you can stay up talking all night long."

"How 'bout only some of the night? I have so much things to tell Reyela about! And Liza does too. I probably won't be able to get a word in edgewise, Liza has so much she wants to say..."

"I'm sure Reyela is very tired. You and Liza can talk to her tomorrow."

"I am a little tired, actually." Reyela held back a yawn. "It's been a very long day for me, and I think I would like to get some sleep now."

Little Bettina was already rubbing her eyes. "Goodnight Reyela. Goodnight Ma and Pa, and Caleb and Medis, and Hannah and Colton."

"Goodnight, everyone."

Picking up the pajamas she had been lent, Reyela followed the two girls into their bedroom, and pulled the door shut behind her. In a second the door flung open again.

"Um, Mrs. Worthington?" the red draik blushed. "Where do I put these pajamas on?"

She got changed down the hall in the family's only bathroom, and within a few minutes she was cozy on a cot on the floor between Hannah's and Bettina's beds.

While Reyela had her eyes closed, Bettina crept over to her cot and tucked her china usul doll under her arm.

"Liza wants to sleep with you tonight." the biscuit usul whispered.

Reyela smiled. She had never slept away from home before, and she was sure that having a doll to sleep with would make her feel more secure in this strange land she had been brought to. Not that she did not feel secure among the Worthingtons. There was something about the family that made her feel safe, as if she were still at home with her father. And her mother.

"They even called me their friend, Mother! Isn't that ridiculously wonderful?"

The scarlet draik's thoughts went out to someone she knew would never get them, as she drifted off into a dream filled sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"Why do you have to leave so soon?"

"I wish I didn't, dearest, but I must. I have no choice."

"But how will I live without you? If you cannot stay, then I must go with you."

"It would be a shame for you to come with me now, my darling. There is far too much you still have to do, right here. But I will see you again after today, and I will continue to help you, just as I have always done. If there is any way I can."

The white draik turned, and her face was only a blur. The world was blurry, cast in a grey shadow filled with sights and sounds from another time. The harsh wind blew, and the white draik opened her suitcase. Then came the song of the wind chimes. It played loud and long, echoing across the plain, filling every room in the cottage. And the white draik took it. She took it up in her arms, and closed it in her suitcase. Then she began to walk away, her long purple dress blowing in the breeze behind her.

"Don't go, Mother!" Reyela cried, but the howling wind drowned out her voice.

Her mother walked through the door, and out into the open plain where she was lifted by the wind up higher, and higher into the sky. Reyela watched her as she rose. She watched her until all she could see was a tiny speck of purple fading into eternity...

"...city girl. Wake up, city girl! Come on, Reyela, you're missing it!"

"Don't be stupid," Reyela moaned, her eyes still shut. "I'm not missing anything."

"Yes you are!" Medis put both hands on her one shoulder that was sticking out from under the blanket, and attempted to shake her awake.

The draik swatted at him. "You've got a lot of nerve!" she hissed, when at last she regained consciousness."Do you even know what time it is? The sun is not even up yet!"

"It's coming up now!" Medis' eyes were alight with excitement. "Come on, Reyela, you gotta come see this!"

She moaned again, and tossed her blankets over the side of the cot.

"Brr."

The morning air was chilly, and she scrambled to pick the blankets up again, and wrap them around herself to protect against the cold.

"Where are Bettina and Hannah?" she wondered, when she noticed the two girls were not in their beds.

"They were up half an hour ago." Medis told her. "Farmers get up at the crack of dawn to start their farm chores early. I guess we should have told you that before you went to bed last night, huh?"

"Yes, that would have been pleasant of you." she glared. "Now, what is it that is so incredible that it's worth getting up at five thirty a.m. to see?"

"I'll show you!"

"Can't you just tell me?"

"No way, city slicker."

He grabbed her by the hand, and dragged her down the stairs, through the living room and out onto the back porch, where Mr. and Mrs. Worthington, Caleb, Hannah, Bettina, and Colton were all standing, looking up at the sky.

"My goodness," Reyela gasped.

"I knew you'd wanna see it." the kougra beamed.

It was unlike anything Reyela had ever seen. The most magnificent sunrise she could imagine was right before her eyes. The sky was not yellow, but a darker colour. Darker, and yet somehow, brighter. The sun was gold, as if someone had painted it with a golden paint brush, and it seemed closer to Neopia than it had ever been. Its glow warmed the souls of the eight neopets who gazed at it in wonder, and admiration.

"Isn't it pretty, Reyela?" Bettina looked up at the scarlet draik with eyes that reflected the sunrise's glow.

"It's beautiful, Betty." Reyela sighed happily. "It's utterly, totally beautiful."

They watched the sky until it turned blue, and the golden sun faded to a cheerful morning yellow. At that time, Mrs. Worthington announced that it was time for breakfast, and the seven family members plus one adjourned to the postage stamp kitchen.

"It's laundry day today." the mother yurble reminded her children. "If any of you have extra clothes that need washing , make sure you bring them out before I start, not after I finish, like a certain brown kougra you may know."

Mr. Worthington put up his hands in defense. "Hey now, you can't all go blaming me. Ya'll know I've got a lot more to think about than just dirty clothes and washing them."

"But Pa, what could be more important than laundry day?" Bettina asked, only half kiddingly. "If you always forgot, you wouldn't ever have any clean clothes to wear."

Reyela snickered quietly to herself. She remembered the filthy overalls the kougra had been wearing the first time she saw him. It was hard to believe it was only yesterday that she was flying over the farm on a magical purple balloon. Today she almost wondered if it all had been a dream. But she knew she didn't walk to the Worthington farm, and she certainly hadn't been brought here by her father, or anyone else.

"I'll go get my clothes right now, if it'll make you feel better. But I don't know what the big deal is. It's not even a special occasion."

Leaving his toast and honey on the table, Mr. Worthington left the kitchen in a flash of torn jeans, and a dirty red work shirt.

"Reyela, if you wouldn't mind wearing Hannah's clothes again today, I'd like to wash that dress of yours. It'll be dry by later on today, and you'll be able to wear it to the city tomorrow."

At the other end of the table, ever-silent Hannah looked up from her breakfast for the first time that morning. "I can do the laundry for you, Ma." she offered quietly, brushing a strand of fair hair out of her eyes. "You already have lots to do, and I know you're still getting ready for Bettina's birthday tomorrow, so..."

"You know I'd be much obliged, Hannah dear," Mrs. Worthington thanked the girl. "But you've never done the laundry all by yourself before, and washing for eight people is no easy task."

"But I wanna help, Ma."

Hannah seemed genuinely sad that she would not be able to help her mother, and there was something in her pained expression that made Reyela feel guilty. She never offered to help her father around the house, especially not with laundry. Father was the parent, and as far as she was concerned it was his job to wash the clothes, and do the dishes, make the beds, and sweep the floors. Now that she came to think of it, he probably would have appreciated her help. But not as much as Mrs. Worthington would appreciate having one less chore on her duty-filled to do list...

"I'll help you do the laundry, Mrs. Worthington." Reyela forced the words out quickly, so as to make sure she wouldn't have time to change her mind. "That is... what I mean to say is that I would be happy to help Hannah do the laundry, so that you don't have to do it."

The yurble was surprised, to say the least. "Why, thank you Reyela, but you're not supposed to worry about things like washing our family's clothes! You're our guest! You're supposed to be relaxing and enjoying yourself, not doing chores for us."

Under normal circumstances, Reyela would have wholeheartedly agreed. But these were not normal circumstances, as she was not a guest. She was a stranger intruding on their property, and disrupting their personal lives. They as a family had allowed her to stay with them, out of the goodness of their own hearts. She did not have any money to pay them for their services, but she was able to work as well as any other neopet could. Or at least she assumed she was. She hadn't really tried her hand at chores before.

"I think I should enjoy doing chores as much as I enjoy relaxing." she fibbed. "Besides, if I'm going to stay with you for another day and a half, I believe I should at least try and earn my keep."

"Well, if you really think you'd like to."

Mrs. Worthington agreed to the proposition, and the next thing Reyela knew, she was in the backyard, being splashed by soapy water while the bubbles tickled her nose.

"If I sneeze, Hannah, it's going to be the biggest sneeze in all of Brightvale. No, in all Neopia, probably, and it's going to blow this basin over, and the clothesline too, and we're going to have to start all over again."

Hannah giggled, coughing a little when a bubble also popped under her nose. "If I sneeze, it's gonna blow the clothesline right up to Kreludor, and the grundos will get all our clothes. They'll all be walking around up there dressed just like us, and then we'll_really_ have to start all over."

The girls laughed.

"Would you really mind doing the whole thing again though?" asked Reyela, hoping the kougra's answer would be the same she would have given.

"Uh-uh," Hannah shook her head. "This is fun, but my clothes are getting drenched."

"So are mine, or should I say, yours."

She stepped back for Hannah to see the checkered red and white top and blue pants she had lent her soaking wet, and covered in foam from the zillions of tiny bubbles that had risen from the lukewarm water.

"I'm sorry you won't have anything else to change into after we're done. All my clothes are in here, and I don't think they're gonna be dry any time soon. Oh!" She suddenly remembered something. "All my clothes aren't in here! I left my plaid dress in my room, and it definitely needs to be washed. I'll be right back."

She scurried away, leaving Reyela alone with the laundry for a moment while she went to retrieve her dress. With Hannah gone, the draik could finally give in to the temptation she had been fighting ever since she had started to wash. She no longer had to resist the urge to do something embarrassing, something she was by no means good at, and for that reason something she rarely did. She started to whistle, an old song her mother had taught her when she was very young. The song did have words to it, but she didn't sing them. Her singing was worse than her whistling, and if Hannah came out and heard her she would never be able to live it down.

So she continued her whistling, and when she looked up from the laundry and saw a biscuit kougra in a red shirt and baggy overalls standing before her, she nearly leaped into the basin of water.

"Oh, don't stop 'cause I'm here." Medis instructed. "That was a real nice song you were whistling."

"You idiot! You scared me! What are you doing here?" the red draik bristled with rage.

"I live here," he smirked. "This is my family's property. And I was told by a little mallard that a world famous whistler was in my backyard."

Medis could see that Reyela was unmoved.

"I just thought I'd stop by, and see how you and Hannah were getting along with the laundry."

"Hannah went to get a dress she forgot to bring down. I'm doing just fine on my own, though."

Medis picked up the cloth Hannah had been using, and began to scrub one of Bettina's grape-juice-stained jumpers.

"That kid has really gotta be more careful. I don't think this'll ever come clean."

"It will come clean eventually. You have to scrub it very hard, like this." Reyela took the jumper from him, and tackled the stain with her own cloth. "You mustn't let the stain get the better of you. That's the secret to doing laundry successfully. Or at least, it seems to be. I don't entirely know, as this is my first time doing it."

"It's no fun at all, is it?" He tossed down his cloth, and water squirted all over his overalls.

"It actually is quite fun, once you get the hang of it." She smiled broadly. "I feel like I'm a grown-up, and I'm washing clothes for my many children. If I had known doing chores would make me feel like this, I would have offered to help my father years ago!"

Medis was confused. "Why do you enjoy feeling like a grown-up so much? Grown-ups have to do household chores all the time, whether they feel like it or not!"

"That's true," Reyela concurred. "But grown-ups also have privileges that would make all the work they have to do worth while. Nobody tells them what to do, but they get to tell their children what to eat, and what to wear, and what to say, or they don't have to do anything with them at all!"

"They don't have to do what now?"

"Anything!" Reyela exclaimed, and kept talking. "And, and they can be the owners of their own houses, and they have their own jobs that pay them their own neopoints, and they can use them however they want to, and don't have to ask anyone's permission before they buy something just for themselves. Why, life doesn't really begin until adulthood, Medis. Childhood is only something that... Well something that gets a person ready for adulthood."

The biscuit kougra frowned. "What are ya talking about? Life begins when you're born,"

"I know that." Reyela cut in.

"And ends when you stop being a child." Medis finished, leaving the scarlet draik in apparent bewilderment.

"So you're saying that you die when you're eighteen or twenty years old?"

"I didn't say that." he said, rolling his eyes. "I said life ends when you stop being a child, and that can happen at any age. My Ma's forty, and my Pa's forty-one, and they're both still very much children."

Reyela took one confounded look at the kougra before turning and walking away.

"Where are you going?" he called after her.

"To tell your mother that you have gone delirious." she said plainly. "Your parents are not children, Medis. They're far, far too old to be."

Medis ran in front of her, and blocked her from entering the house. "We're gonna play games for Bettina's birthday tomorrow, and my Ma and Pa are gonna play too. They love playin' games, like hide-and-go-seek and ring toss, and they play 'em with us whenever they get the chance to. Does your daddy do that?"

"Of course not!" She didn't even have to think about her answer.

"And does your daddy like opening birthday presents as much as you do? Or run down the stairs with you Christmas morning?"

This question she did think about, somewhat. "He doesn't often get birthday presents, and our house is only one floor, so we haven't got any stairs to run down Christmas morning, but if we did, he wouldn't do it. He would say he was too old to do things like that."

"See?" he showed her. "Now why would he think he was too old? Are his legs all wobbly and weak, so he can't run down the stairs? Or is he afraid he's gonna fall and break his creaky old bones? Or is he afraid of opening presents, maybe? Maybe he's scared he'll cut his thin, wrinkly skin if he tears the rapping paper too hard."

The draik started to laugh, but stopped herself before Medis could see. "I don't appreciate you talking about my father that way. He's not the only one who acts like that, I'm sure. Getting over excited is for children, and no self-respecting adult wants to look immature."

"Who are they trying to impress?" he raised his voice, a little more than usual. "What isn't exciting about playing games at birthday parties, or getting presents, or waking up Christmas morning'? And whoever said there was an age where you had to stop being excited, and enjoying life? If you can tell me, Reyela, and it's a real good answer, I won't bother you anymore about it."

Reyela couldn't tell him. She didn't know, and now that he had brought it to her attention, it didn't really make sense at all.

"You're only fully alive when your young, because that's the only time you live life how it's meant to be. But if you keep yourself young on the inside, no matter what age you turn, you've got nothing to worry about." Medis shrugged his customary shrug. "I know it sounds stupid, but hey, it's the way I see things."

Reyela heard the door slam behind her, and out came Hannah, waving her orange dress in the air like a flag.

"I found it!" she cried, as loudly as her soft voice could manage. "I forgot that Bettina took it the other night when it was really cold out. She was using it as an extra blanket for her doll." She blushed. "Hi Medis. Are you doing the laundry with Reyela now?"

"No, I just stopped by to see how you two were doing. I guess I'd better go give Jimmy his daily visit."

Reyela had already gone back to the laundry. Her own sky-blue dress was the next to be washed. She scrubbed at the grass stains until her hand was sore, and the cloth was beginning to wear thin.

"What is wrong with this dress?"

She grabbed Hannah's cloth and tried the stains with that. She lightly stroked them with her bare hand, and then she clawed at them with brutal force. When the stains still refused to come out, the draik dropped the dress into the water, and rammed her foot into the wash basin.

"Why do you have all this infernal grass on your farm? It's good for nothing! Absolutely nothing but... but stupid, ugly grass stains!"

The siblings stared at her in shock as she had her temper tantrum, stomping her feet and squealing like a baby snorkel. It took about six minutes for Hannah to get up the nerve to tell her she needed to walk away from the laundry for the time being, and another four minutes for Medis to be brave enough to suggest she go to the barn with him to visit Jimmy. It appeared Mrs. Worthington was even afraid of the raging draik, as she waited until she and Medis had left the yard to come out of the house and ask Hannah what had happened.

"Reyela was having one of her fits again, Ma." Hannah answered, her voice still shaking as much as her hands and knees. "Why do you think she does that? She seemed so happy before. It's like she has a split personality!"

"Medis did say that she does that sometimes, but I had no idea how bad it was."

She spotted Reyela's dress floating in the water, the grass stains still as green as ever. "Is this what she was upset about?"

"I think so, but she started shouting about other things, and asking why we had so much grass. Medis said because we live on a farm, and she looked like she was going to hit him or something."

The blue yurble shuttered. "She's seemed like such a nice girl when I've talked to her."

"I thought so too, but she changes so quick. We were having a good time, and then she had to go and ruin it all. It's too bad, isn't it Ma?"

"It is too bad." Mrs. Worthington agreed. "But let's not be too hard on Reyela. She's probably going through a very hard time right now. She's an awful long way from her father, and everything she knows. And think of how you'd feel if you were taken away from your family, on your birthday of all days?"

"I wouldn't like it much at all." She ran to her mother and embraced her.

"I know what we can do to make Reyela happier." She whispered her idea in the yurble's ear.

"That sounds like a fine idea." Mrs. Worthington pronounced. "But you'll have to take it up with your sister first."

"I'll ask her right now!" Hannah cried, and with that, darted into the house again.

Mrs. Worthington looked at the door, and then at the dirty clothes that were still yet to be washed. She took up a cloth, added more soap to the cooling water, and began to sing a cheerful washing song. Some jobs were, and would always be, only for moms.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you so much everyone who's reading this story! You have no idea how much it means to me. :D **

**Chapter Text**__**Featuring Jimmy, All the Petpets, a Trip to the Marketplace and Suppertime**__

"Relax, Jimmy, it's only me."

The startled vacana calmed down in an instant when he heard the sound of his owner's voice. He perked up his ears and trotted over to the kougra, his stubby tail swishing back and forth like a dogelfox about to get a treat.

"Ahem." Reyela cleared her throat.

"Oh," said Medis, taking the hint. "Reyela's here too, Jimmy. You remember her, don't'cha? She's real nice."

Reyela put her hand up to pet Jimmy, but the vacana ducked and backed away.

"I thought you said he liked me." the scarlet draik knit her brow.

"He does like you." Medis insisted. "You just put your hand up too fast. You've gotta go slowly, like this." He calmly approached the shaggy petpet, and gently patted his velvet nose. "Now you try."

She walked up to Jimmy in the same way Medis had, and this time when she tried to pat him, he rubbed against her hand, and started chewing on a loose strand of her hair as if it were a piece of hay.

"Bad Jimmy!" she scolded. "What in Neopia do you think you're doing? I am not your lunch!"

Medis howled. "You should have seen your face just now! He's playing with you, not trying to eat you!"

"Is that so? Perhaps I should chew on his ear, and see how he likes it."

Jimmy bobbed his head, as if he had understood her and was nodding, saying, 'I would like that very much.'

Reyela sighed. "I wish every petpet could be like Jimmy."

"I bet it's your eyes she likes." the biscuit kougra teased his petpet. "You know, there's just something about those eyes that makes people always want to see them."

"I mean because he's kind, and gentle. I know I don't have to worry about him kicking or biting me. It would be so nice if other petpets could be the same."

"Most of them are." Medis scratched the vacana under the chin until the creature was drooling with delight. "Of course, it all depends on how they themselves have been treated. A petpet only knows what its owner has taught it. If they've only been taught cruelty all their lives, you can't expect them to treat a neopet, or another petpet with kindness."

"But what if the petpet doesn't have an owner to teach them right from wrong? Or what if the owner doesn't have time to teach it, because he's too busy working, or doing other things that don't include his petpet?"

"Um," Medis said after several seconds. "Well, the petpet might end up going wild. You always gotta be careful around a wild petpet, because they haven't been taught right from wrong. They have to choose themselves which way they're going to go. We can only hope they choose the right way."

"And which way do you think the majority of them choose?" Reyela inquired earnestly.

"I don't altogether know, but I have a feeling most of them pick the right way. It's in a petpet's nature, just as it is a neopet's."

Neither of them spoke for a long while after this, and Medis felt that he was seeing yet another side of Reyela as she silently stroked Jimmy's head with all the tenderness and care of a veteran petpet tamer, or of a lonely little girl who was learning to love for the first time. The draik was the first to brake the silence, when she asked the kougra how many petpets he had on his farm.

"None of us rightly know at this time." he chuckled. "We counted everyone last spring, and that was a silly thing to do, 'cause we just keep getting more and more."

"I'd like you to introduce me to all of your petpets, Medis." Reyela said out of the blue.

"You know not what you ask." Medis laughed, running his fingers through the single tuft of fur between his ears. "When I say we've got a lot of critters around here, I mean a __lot__ of critters. It would take a lot of time!"

Reyela shrugged in a way that would have made Medis proud, if only he had been aware of the odd habit he had.

"I've got all day." she grinned, and Medis slapped the stall door with glee.

"Then what are we standing here talking for?" he shouted. "Come on, I'll take you to meet the whole gang!"

"Caleb, do you think Reyela likes Liza?"

Bettina followed her brother in and out of the storeroom, as he dragged crates of vegetables out of the barn for Mr. Worthington to load onto the carriage to take to market.

"Sure she does." Caleb answered, in between heaves."Who couldn't like a sweet doll like Liza?"

"I wanna know if you think she likes her really, very much though, Caleb. Do you think she wishes she was her own?"

The yurble almost dropped the crate of carrots on his toes."You're not thinking about giving away Liza, are you?"

"Don't even say that!" Bettina shrilled, covering the usul doll's ears. "There was a doll just like Liza in Old Man Ross' store when I went with Pa to the marketplace last Sunday, and I thought since Reyela likes Liza so much that I would go and get it for her. Do I have enough?" She pulled out a small burlap bag from her coat pocket, and held it open for the yurble to look inside.

"I'm afraid not, honey." He shook his head. "If I remember correctly, those china dolls cost about eight thousand neopoints, and what you've got in there is only about three thousand. I'm sorry, Betty."

"It's no fair!" Bettina wined. "Reyela's never had a doll before, in her whole, whole life! She told me last night, and I thought, 'Bettina, you should get that girl a doll, that's what you should do'. So I got all my neopoints together, and I put it in this bag, and now you tell me that I don't have enough, and I say that's not fair! Do you think Pa would buy it for her, Caleb? Pa's got a lotta neopoints to spend."

"No he doesn't, honey. Especially not now that winter's coming. But I'll tell you what," He shook the little burlap bag, and handed it back to the usul. "If you're that sure Reyela needs her own doll, then I reckon she really must need her own doll. I've got some neopoints left over from the summertime, when I worked on Uncle Jack's farm. It's in my room, in the top drawer of the dresser. You can go grab it if you want."

Bettina clasped her hands over her mouth. "Really? You really mean you're gonna help me pay for it?"

"Why not? We can't have our friend go her whole life without ever owning a doll. Though I do think it's kinda strange that she doesn't have one, if she's always wanted one. You'd think her father would have gotten one for her."

Bettina paused, not entirely sure what her brother was saying. "Do you think we shouldn't do it?"

"No, no we should definitely do it." he said quickly. "Go get that money, girl!"

The biscuit usul took off like a rocket into the house, while Caleb and Mr. Worthington loaded the last crates of vegetables onto the carriage. Soon the three of them would be off to the marketplace, and Reyela would finally have the birthday gift she had probably always dreamed of. Bettina felt so good to know she was helping a friend.

Neopia was spinning faster than Reyela thought was possible. She must have still been dizzy from rolling down the hill to the babaa pasture. Why oh why had she let Medis talk her into doing something so absurd? He said it was the fastest way, and at the time it had seemed like the only rational thing to do. After all, she had been waiting to see the cuddly little things for at least eleven minutes. If she had had to wait a few more seconds, she would certainly have died from the agony of being unable to feel the fleecy fur she had heard so very much about.

To her delight, the babaas were worth every grass stain she got on her borrowed shirt and pants, and running across the pasture being chased by an angry nuk that had somehow gotten in with the gentle creatures set her heart aglow in a way Reyela couldn't describe. They walked along a fence to meet the whinny in its stable, and they were stopped by a friendly wibreth who cawed right beside Reyela's ear. She screamed, and Medis laughed so hard that Reyela cawed in his ear in revenge. The kougra was unfazed, but the wibreth was terrified by the sound, and leapt off the fence, leaving behind only a cloud of red and white feathers.

"You sure told him!" Medis choked through fits of laughter.

"That will be the last time he does something so rude in a lady's ear!" Reyela brushed the imaginary dust off her hands.

They played fetch with a litter of doglefox puppies that were more interested in eating sticks than retrieving them, but were adorable nonetheless. They fed cornflakes to the gobblers, and visited a blurgah and its calf. Reyela was frightened by the blurgahs when she first saw the giant petpets grazing in the field. Their long legs and bulky bodies were intimidating, and their colossal horns were truly alarming. The draik soon learned, however, that she had nothing to fear from the beasts, for they were as sweet-tempered as any other petpet on the Worthington farm, and she could see why. Medis was very fond of Delany and Danny, as he called them, and he and his family gave them only the kindest treatment. How could they have been anything but friendly and mild when their lives were so carefree, and charmed?

If Reyela had been born a petpet, and not a neopet, she would have wanted to belong to the Worthingtons. At the moment she was wishing that she had been born a petpet, as it seemed like quite a bit of fun to be one. Petpets rolled in the mud without fear of getting dirty. They could play in the fields all day long, or they could stay inside and be loved and pampered by their owners. They could be as loud as they wanted, eat whatever they felt, and the Worthington family petpets could be around the Worthingtons all the time. The Worthingtons, and their middle son, the boy who understood them better than they understood themselves. What it would be like to be with Medis all the time...

"This one's Queenie, and this big one here is Charlie."

"Hello Charlie!" Reyela tossed a piece of stale bread to the largest mallard in the pond. "Is Charlie the father of all these baby mallards? He has a darling little family."

"__She__ has a darling little family." Medis corrected. "Charlie's actually their mother."

"What kind of a name is Charlie for a female?"

"Well, we didn't always know she was a female. We thought she was a boy until two springs ago, when she started laying eggs. My Ma said Charlie could be short for Charlize, or something real beautiful like that. Me, I like to think of her as just being Charlie. Charlize is too prissy for our mama mallard."

Reyela smiled and nodded, but then her smile twisted into a sort of frown. "Do you think I am prissy, Medis?"

The kougra replied with only a single three-letter word. "Yup."

"What do you mean 'yup'?" the draik demanded. "Aren't you even going to explain why you feel that way? "

"Oh ho!" he teased her. "You panic whenever you get a speck of dirt on your dress, and you're constantly fiddling with your hair to make sure it's perfect. You only put honey on the very middle of your toast this morning, I'm assuming 'cause you didn't want your fingers to get sticky, and you just about covered yourself in napkins last night when we were eating supper."

"We were eating soup, and I'm not used to eating soup!" she protested. "I might have dripped it all over myself! And if you don't like that I like to keep myself looking presentable, well, you just don't have to talk to me anymore. I'm leaving tomorrow evening, I'll be out of your non-hair soon enough."

"I didn't say I didn't like it." Medis caught her by the arm as she began to walk away. "You're different from anyone I've ever met, I guess because we're from two totally different parts of Brightvale. But different isn't a bad thing."

Reyela turned around, and sat back down in front of the mallard pond. "You know, the part of Brightvale where I live... may not be so very different from this place here. It isn't nearly as pretty as your farm. It's greyer, and flatter, and the air doesn't taste as clean, and the people aren't as neighbourly. But it's still more the same than you think."

Medis shrugged his shoulders. "I reckon a little town near a city could kinda have a countryish feel to it. I'm sure it's a lot more crowded though."

"My closest neighbour lives half a mile away." Reyela blurted suddenly.

The kougra became quiet. "That doesn't sound like anywhere near Brightvale City..."

"It isn't." Reyela finally admit. "But I wish I lived near it, if not in Brightvale City. When I landed here, I didn't know anything about you or your family, and you didn't know anything about me. I thought it was wonderful that you knew nothing about who I was, or where I had come from. I could make up any silly story about myself, and you wouldn't know any better because you didn't know me. I couldn't say I lived in Brightvale City, because I knew nothing about it, and I figured you would find out I was lying sooner or later..."

"So you made it sound like you lived close enough to the city that you could go at the drop of a hat, because you knew you would never get caught in a lie like that, and it would have been your next biggest dream anyway." Medis finished her sentence for her. "Why are you telling me this now? I probably would have never caught on. All I know about Brightvale City is that our apples are sold there."

"But you know me now." Reyela explained. "And I know you, and, frankly, I don't think I'm capable of pretending to be a sophisticated, city living lady any longer."

"You'd be a sophisticated lady wherever you lived, Reyela." the kougra consoled her.

Nothing further was said on the matter, until Medis recalled that the draik had mentioned something about __landing__ on their farm.

"Landing? Why, that would imply that I flew here. But I can't fly. I can do little more than hover."

She denied ever saying such a thing, and Medis assumed he had simply heard wrong. Reyela rebuked herself privately. She did not plan to tell Medis about the balloon unless it became necessary that she tell him, and the way she was continually slipping up told her that the time may be near at hand. But she didn't want to tell him the ridiculous truth. He had just become her friend, and she couldn't lose him now. If the kougra's friendship meant anything to her —Which it did — she would have to get her act together. She would have to be extra careful.

The carriage rattled down the bumpy dirt road, as the early evening sun sunk below the old pine trees. Tiny arms struggled to hold not only one, but two china dolls on a lap that would not stop bouncing. For once in her life, Bettina wished that the road to her house was paved, so the ride would be gentler, and she would not have to worry about dropping and braking the delicate cargo that meant ever so much to her.

The carriage hit another bump, and the usul held the dolls so tightly that she could have smothered them herself.

"Are we almost home, Pa?" Bettina called to her father in the front seat, steering the whinny.

Mr. Worthington looked over his shoulder, and promised his daughter they were almost home.

"Why don't'you get Caleb to hold onto Reyela's doll if you're having a hard time holding them both."

"I keep offering, Pa." Caleb told him. "But she keeps on saying no."

"Liza wants Reyela's doll to stay here, Pa. She's already becoming friends with her! Isn't that right, Liza? Why, yes Bettina, it is!" Bettina said in Liza's voice.

"Well, if Liza says so." Mr. Worthington shrugged.

"Thanks Pa!" She sang in first her own voice, and then in Liza's. "

Bettina had secretly vowed to Reyela's doll that she would not let it out of her sight until it was safely in Reyela's arms. She had had a difficult enough time trying to purchase the china usul from the marketplace, partly because she had thought that the doll had been yellow instead of green.

Here's how it happened:

While Mr. Worthington was at the grocery store, unloading twenty-two crates of assorted vegetables from the carriage, Caleb and Bettina had gone into Old Man Ross' general store, where Bettina had seen the china usul doll displayed in the window the Sunday before. Caleb went up to the store owner, and asked if he still had the yellow-furred usul doll.

"Just like this one!" Bettina held up Liza for a reference.

"Actually, I don't think I've ever had a doll like that one in this store."

"Are you sure it looked exactly like Liza, Bettina?" Caleb double-checked.

"I'm sure!" the biscuit usul insisted. "She could be her twin sister! Come on, Caleb, we have to find her!"

They turned the store upside down looking for the yellow usul doll. Naturally, the first place they searched was the table by the window where Bettina had last seen it. When they didn't find it on the table, they scoured underneath it, and proceeded to do the same to the rest of the shop. They sifted through the rack of clothes, skimmed through the food section, and of course ransacked the toys, but there was still no yellow-furred china usul doll to be found.

At around that time, Old Man Ross came out from the back room, brandishing a doll out in front of him like a sword. The doll couldn't have looked any more like Liza, except for the colour of the fur around its neck, and the little satin bows in its ears.

"That's it! That's the one!" Bettina exclaimed. "She looks exactly like Liza, doesn't she Caleb?"

This was a moment when Caleb Worthington was grateful he didn't have hair. If he did, he would have pulled it out when he looked at the doll, and heard his sister utter these stupid words.

"Confound it, Bettina, you said that doll was yellow!"

"I... I..." Bettina stuttered. "I guess I must have forgot."

Her expression was so innocent and sweet that Mr. Ross laughed out loud, and Caleb didn't know if he wanted to strangle or hug his baby sister. He opted for the second one a few minutes later, when Bettina found they didn't have enough to buy the doll.

"This is a mighty big number, Caleb." She held the price tag right in front of her eyes, as if looking at it extra closely would make the five-digit number easier for her to comprehend.

The yurble took the doll from her, and turned the tag towards his own eyes. "Ten thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine neopoints." he read the price out loud. "That's crazy! Who in Brightvale besides the king has got that kind of money to spend on a doll?"

"Not too many, I'm afraid." said Mr. Ross. "Three different kids have asked me to put that china usul on hold for them, telling me their parents will come back for it as soon as they have the neopoints. Nobody's ever come back for it though. I've been hiding it in the back room since Monday for one little girl who said her daddy would come get it in five minutes. I suppose it's safe to say they don't want it anymore."

"I know it's not really my place, Mr. Ross," ventured Caleb. "But if you're having such a hard time selling it, why don't you lower the price?"

"It's not up to me." the brown shoyru revealed. "The company who manufactures them has recently raised the price. I should have known better than to order it . Nobody's ever going to be able to buy it."

"And Reyela is never gonna have a doll." Bettina sniffled, her eyes welling up with tears. "Poor Reyela."

"Who's Reyela?" wondered Mr. Ross. "I don't believe I've heard you mention her before."

"She's a young girl, around Medis' age, who just showed up at our farm about this time yesterday."

"She and her daddy were going to Brightvale City, and her daddy stopped to talk to someone, and Reyela got bored and she started to wander, and she got lost and ended up at our farm!" Bettina told the story with all of her typical excitement, and enthusiasm.

"Bettina said Reyela said she's never had a doll in her life, and since she seems to like Bettina's doll so much, we thought we'd try to get her one of her own. But Bettina only has three thousand neopoints, and I only have five thousand. It seems we're still more than two thousand neopoints short."

"That is a predicament." the store owner remarked.

"Well, come on then, Bettina, we'd better go help Pa. Thank you for your time, Mr. Ross."

Caleb started towards the door, with his despairing sister in tow. They were about to step out into the bustling marketplace, when Old Man Ross waved them back inside.

"Now wait a second, you two. You came for a doll, and a doll you're gonna get."

"Are you gonna lower the price for us, Mr. Ross?" Bettina asked hopefully.

"That's just what I'm going to do, Miss Bettina." the old shoyru cheerfully apprised. "Your generosity has inspired me. I'd be happy to lower the price for two upstanding young neopets such as yourselves."

The biscuit usul inhaled sharply. "Thanks, Mr. Ross!" She embraced the shoyru's legs.

"Thank you kindly, sir." the blue yurble acknowledged, knowing full well that the money had come out of the store owner's own pocket. "That's the nicest thing a fella could do for a couple'a kids in need."

And so from that moment on, Bettina had held the green usul doll, refusing to let it get away from her as it nearly had twice already. If it hadn't been for the helping hand of old Mr. Ross, who knows how dismal Reyela's life might have been without a china doll to call her own?

"So when are you gonna give it to her?" Caleb asked on the bumpity ride home.

"I don't know yet." she replied. "I want to wait for the moment to be just right."

"Oh, okay." he chuckled. "And how will you know when that is?"

"When she's not yelling and screaming about something. When she's just being nice, that's when I like her best."

"That's when I like her best too."

Before long, the carriage had come to a stop in front of the Worthington family barn.

"You know, you're gonna have to think of a real good hiding place if you don't want Reyela to see it yet." Mr. Worthington noted as he helped his daughter down to the ground.

"Don't worry, Pa! Me and Liza already have an idea, don't we Liza?"

The doll nodded her head, and said, "We sure do!" and the real usul and china usul trotted off into the barn.

Super time in the Worthington household was the most joyous time of the day.

__Imagine being this happy at least once every day!__ Reyela thought as she watched the whole family work together to prepare the meal.

Everyone had their own job to do. Mrs. Worthington cut up vegetables, while Mr. Worthington stirred the macaroni. Caleb added sauce to the noodles, once the water had been drained from the pot. Medis poured the drinks, Hannah and Bettina set the table, and Colton sat in his highchair, supervising. Tonight Reyela asked if she could do something to help.

"Just you being our guest is enough for us." Caleb tried to convince her, but Reyela wasn't satisfied.

"Oh, just let me help you!" she demanded. "Here, let me take this to the table for you, Mr. Worthington."

She did hear Mrs. Worthington tell her to use the handles when she went to pick up the steaming pot of macaroni. Unfortunately, it didn't register quick enough for the family's lovely meal to be saved. Reyela cried out in agony above the sound of her hands sizzling against the pot. They probably would have stuck if she hadn't let go at the exact second she had.

The pot flipped upside-down in the air, and the macaroni splattered all over the kitchen floor. Colton started crying when he heard the crashing sound. Somebody told her to run her hands under cold water, but she didn't know exactly who, so focused was she on the pain. She rushed to the tap, turned it on with her elbow, and felt a wave of relief as her burnt skin was immersed in the cold running water.

The burning sensation was gone from her hands, but when she looked at the hungry family who's supper she had just ruined, the feeling returned, this time in her heart. Mrs. Worthington opened her mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.

__You stupid girl, Reyela.__ Reyela was certain she would say. When no Worthington said it, she said it herself, and not one of them told her otherwise. She had spoiled their joyous evening, and all she had done was try to be helpful. Maybe that was why she had never helped anyone in her lifetime. Maybe nothing in her life was meant to be right, and maybe it couldn't be helped.


End file.
